Monitoring disability equality

The need for monitoring

The Disability Equality Duty introduced the requirement for higher education institutions (HEIs) to produce their first Disability Equality Schemes in 2006. These schemes require institutions to gather and analyse data and other evidence relating to the participation of disabled staff and students in higher education, their achievements, and the progress they make in comparison with non-disabled staff and students. Robust data for disability equality monitoring enables appropriate action to be taken to address inequalities.

Monitoring enables institutions to:

• identify the barriers where action is most needed
• take action
• review its effectiveness
• decide whether further work is needed.

Data gathering and analysis is a significant part of the Disability Equality Duty, and institutions need to allocate time and resources to this work. 

What should be monitored?

HEIs should consider what evidence they will need to demonstrate they are giving due regard to all aspects of disability equality relevant to their operations. An HEI’s Disability Equality Scheme must set out its arrangements for gathering data to assess the effect of its policies and practices on:

• the recruitment, development and retention of disabled employees
• the educational opportunities available to, and achievements of, disabled students.

To meet the legal duties, ECU recommends that HEIs gather information on the following (comparing data relating to disabled and non-disabled staff and students):

In terms of the positive action required by the Disability Equality Duty, institutions may want to collect data in relation to the extent to which:

• positive attitudes towards disabled people have been promoted - for example through surveys of disabled people’s experiences, or through monitoring increases in inclusive activities and programmes
• steps have been taken to meet the needs of disabled staff and students.

What are the benefits of monitoring?

Reliable and up-to-date statistical information enables HEIs to:

• assess their performance 
• compare their performance against national and other comparable institutions
• set targets for improving outcomes
• review progress against benchmarks and adjust actions as appropriate
• identify barriers to good performance and actions for improving performance
• fulfil the legal requirements of the Disability Equality Duty.
  

Comparing data from different sources

Staff with responsibility for equal opportunities policy development and implementation need to know how to locate local, regional and national data relating to disabled people and how to make comparisons with their own institution.

HEIs need to take care to identify differences in the categories used to define disability by different organisations and agencies. Other national, regional and local demographic data are available from:

• local authorities, which are likely to own data and information about numbers of disabled people in the local community
  
• the National Statistics website signposts national data about prevalence of disabled people and impairments from a range of sources and the 2001 census
• British Labour Force Surveys (Office for National Statistics) can run searches for data not available online, although there may be a charge for this work)
• local and national consortia of disability-related organisations.

Further information

To read more about monitoring see:

• Mapping equality data in the higher education sector
• Equality Specialists' Guide
• Conducting equality impact assessment in higher education
• Involving disabled people in disability equality schemes: briefing paper for the higher education sector